The stockmarket received around Tk 100 crore in foreign investment in the first month of the year, 19 times higher than in the same month last year.
Foreign investors bought shares worth Tk 136.48 crore in January, up around 97 percent from Tk 69.28 crore in the same month last year, according to Dhaka Stock Exchange.
In January, they sold shares worth Tk 36.75 crore, against the Tk 64.26 crore sold in the same month a year ago.
Overall, in January 2013, Tk 99.73 crore was received as foreign investment, while it was only Tk 5.02 crore in the same month last year.
Local stockbrokers, who trade on behalf of the foreign investors, said the stock prices came down to a lucrative level during the period, due to a bear run that started two years ago.
They expect more foreign investment in future, as the central bank recently allowed local stockbrokers to share profit on trading commission with the foreign stockbrokers, who trade from abroad on behalf of the foreign investors.
Previously, profit-sharing on trading commission was not allowed, which discouraged foreign stockbrokers from participating in the country's capital market.
“This has opened the door,” said Wali Ul Islam, chief executive officer of LankaBangla Securities, which initiated an aggressive marketing last year to attract foreign investment to the stockmarket.
He added: “The stockmarket is now an ideal place for investment.”
The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, too, is working to find ways to increase foreign investment in the stockmarket.
Foreign investment, also known as portfolio investment, accounts for less than 1 percent of the total market capitalisation of the DSE.
In 2012, foreign investors bought stocks worth Tk 1,348.41 crore, while they sold shares worth Tk 555.8 crore.
Banks were the foreign investors' preferred sector, but non-bank financial institutions, power and energy, pharmaceuticals, multinational companies, telecom and IT also caught their attention.

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